|
|
Happy New Year to everyone. I hope that the holidays are full of fun, joy and thoughts of water gardens dancing in one's head!!?? My thoughts are now of digging down through 3 feet of snow to reach my twin ponds out at our farm. I suppose you could call that a type of dancing?? The last couple of snowstorms really drifted in over my ponds out back -- never had this problem before. It certainly would seal off the ponds from the atmosphere better than just ice. This weekend I am focused on this project before the oxygen is depleted. Not that many fish but a fair amount of organic matter in the ponds from last fall. I need to have an air pump running. However, with the drifts forming over the area each time it snows I needed to come up with a different idea to keep a hole open (especially through the snow drift).
I first put up a snow fence to catch the majority of the snow that blows over the land before it reaches the ponds. This ought to work but I should have had it done before the first snow fell. Then I have improvised a 6-foot high stack to go into the ponds and extend out the snowdrift. My air line going into the each pond will then circulate water within this stack and then out into the ponds. Then if the snow blows again, it should not drift over my hole. It will work but I need to get it installed soon.
I found out before Christmas that Gretchen, our publicity chair, has decided to resign due to so many things going on in her life that she cannot keep up with doing as good a job for our group. So, I am looking for someone to take Gretchen's place as Publicity Chair. It will be hard to do as good of a job as Gretchen did, but whoever volunteers will get a lot of help from the officers and directors. Thank you Gretchen for your input and work for our organization over the last 2 years.
For our meeting program on January 12 we have a special guest coming. Jim Pease, Professor and the Extension Wildlife Biologist with Iowa State University, will be talking about wildlife around our ponds and how to deal with the unwanted ones. Jim is exceptionally well qualified for this and his talents as a speaker are almost legendary. He is very engaging and knowledgeable. You will not want to miss this one. The meeting will start at 7:00 PM at the Alliant facility (where we have most of our meetings).
I also want to schedule a Directors meeting at the Ames Public Library on January 8 at 6:30 PM -- inquire at the main desk which room the meeting is in. This is a very important meeting to plan for this upcoming year as well as elect officers. This is only for the Directors.
Hope to see everybody on the 12th. Happy New Year.
The Big Toad, Jamie